Incandescence
by Green Tide
Summary: The Elrics are the perfect family. Edmund & Winry are the perfect parents with the perfect children and the perfect home. But, are they really? Such a perfect life can go up in flames and be just ashes of what once was. The hurt of an infidelity may just be what destroys the Elrics. Can everything really be ok after what happened and can forgiveness be attained? R
1. Prologue

**_Hello! This is Green Tide with a new story. I've never been able to finish a multi-chaptered story but this is an honest try from my part. Guess I got to explain this well._**

**__****_This story is set in modern times: there are cellphones, cars, etc. I basically just borrowed Edward, Alphonse and Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist as main characters, but that's where the similarities end. Their characters are OCC most of the time and no other characters will make guest appearances. The drama in this story is a very normal, everyday type of drama involving marriages and family. It's a take on the ugliness of an infidelity and the hurt it causes on a family. Edward and Alphonse are not brothers but best friends since childhood and Winry is not an automail mechanic (unfortunately). They have a teenage daughter and a little boy, and they are a very wealthy family. I hope any other doubt is cleared within the story and if it isn't ask away! I hope you enjoy~_**

"You've really messed it up this time, Edward," Alphonse gently scolded his life-long friend, Edward Elric.

Edward grunted and downed his vodka glass. Alphonse reached across the dining room table – which was quite a feat considering it was an impressive, dark wooden table that could probably sit 30 people – and took the glass away.

Edward mustered a scathing glare that immediately dissolved into a pitiful look. "Al, I don't know what to do," he finally confessed. "They hate me, Al. They are gone."

Alphonse looked at his friend with saddened eyes. He loved Winry, Lizbeth, and little Triskal with all his heart, too. They were, after all, the only family he had.

"I'm sure Winry will forgive you if you just," he stopped, struggling to find the right words, "explain it to her, or I don't know! Do something!"

Edward chuckled, a rather bitter chuckle. "Ah, Alphonse, what am I to explain? How or why I cheated on her? How I was an idiot? Yes, I definitely see myself explaining that and Winry forgiving me as easily as that," he laughed humorlessly as he looked longingly at the glass Alphonse was holding.

Alphonse gripped the glass hard. He tried to control himself, knowing it was the loneliness, guilt, anger, and alcohol that were doing the talking instead of Edward, but he exploded.

"What were you thinking when you did it, huh? It never crossed your mind what your wife and your daughter would feel like? And with whom you got involved with! Of all the women in the world you could have had an affair with, why did you choose the nanny of your son and your daughter's friend to do it? Edward!"

He was yelling at this point. Alphonse stood up and strode to his friend who was sitting hunched on the chair, receiving the blows and not saying a word. "Talk to me, Edward!" he shook his friend's shoulders.

Edward looked with glazed eyes at him. Alphonse's long, blond hair looked in disarray, his cheeks were flushed, and his hazel eyes burned with emotion. Edmund tiredly thought that his friend had never looked so upset at something in his life. Alphonse was normally of an amiable disposition, always smiling and never losing his cool. He was sweet and caring.

"I don't know, Al! I didn't think," he whispered hoarsely as the realization hit him. Throughout the whole thing, he hadn't thought a thing. Not what he was doing, not whom was he hurting, not what would happen.

"I didn't think, Al," he repeated, choking a sob, "I hurt them, I even hurt you, and I didn't think." Alphonse's face softened as his friend finally broke down and cried.

"About time, idiot. I thought your pride will never let the water gates flow," he told him as he embraced his friend. The last time he had seen Edward cry was when Edward was twelve years old and he had been seven years old. On Edward's father's funeral.

"There, there," Alphonse whispered, patting his back, "we'll fix it, ok? We will fix this family again. Now wipe your runny nose and go to sleep. Tomorrow we'll know what to do."

Edward obediently wiped his nose with his ever-present handkerchief. "Are you leaving?" he asked with a frail voice. Alphonse shook his head and led his friend up the grand stairs.

"I'll stay," he simply said, "hopefully the guest room is ready?" Edward laughed.

"Which guest room? You know there is over thirty in this house."

Alphonse smiled. "Yes, show-off, I know that. Well, I'm sure your score of servants would have that covered."

Edward shrugged. "How will I know? I haven't seen one of them since that day," he deflated visibly as he remembered the day Winry and Lizbeth found out, "they're like ghosts."

Alphonse shook his head, smiling. "Yes, cleaning ghosts. You need to sleep, my friend. Good night."

Edward opened the door to his room, "good night to you too." He was about to close the door when Alphonse called out to him.

"Don't overthink tonight, Ed," he warned. Edward threw him a rueful smile. "Yes, I'm good at not thinking," he said, shutting the door.

**_Hope you liked it and review!_**


	2. Crystal

_**Hi~ Here's a new chapter for you guys. Enjoy!**_

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist and its characters.

Note: I'm sorry, but I do use a loooooot of dialogue in my writing. If that annoys you, I'm sorry. I'm still trying to change that about my writing style. Anyways...

"Mother, I'm so happy for you!" Lizbeth cried out as she hugged her mother tightly. Winry hugged her back.

"Thank you, darling, I am very happy too." Edmund gave his wife a sweet peck on the lips and hugged her.

"That's my girl," he proudly said. Winry blushed and punched him lightly on the arm.

"We aren't growing any younger, you know. I'm not a school girl anymore."

Edmund pouted his lips as he drew his wife closer to him by the waist. "But, haven't you heard? The thirties are the new twenties! We are forever young." He kissed her passionately.  
Lizbeth scoffed and turned her face away, smiling.

"Hey there, little guy," she said, picking up Triskal in her arms, "you want some love, too?"

The little boy who had his father's blue eyes and the light hair of his mother grinned at his sister. Edmund and Winry closed in on them and gave them a hug. Winry hugged her son close and kissed him on the top of his head. A troubled smile appeared on her lips.

"What's wrong, Winry?" Edmund asked his wife. She bounced Triskal up and down in her arms and he exuberantly laughed.

"This new job will require me to be absent from home for some months in the mornings," she said, "Who will take care of Triskal while I'm gone?"

All of them thought for a second. "I guess we will need to hire a nanny," Edmund nonchalantly said. Lizbeth agreed.

"Yes, mother, that's a good idea."

Edolin looked hesitant. "And where am I going to find a nanny?"

Lizbeth snapped her fingers. "How about I put up posters up in my college campus? There are many kids who are looking for jobs while they study. That way, if somebody becomes interested, I'll have an idea of who they are and tell you who is better for taking care of the prettiest little one," she added, blowing a kiss to her brother.

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, dear," Edmund said, rubbing encouragingly Winry's back. Winry slowly nodded.

"You're right, darling, it does sound like a plan. Will you help me do the posters?" she asked her daughter with puppy eyes.

"Mother!" she whined.

"Please?" she begged again.

Edmund laughed. "How can you resist your mother? Go, go help her."

Lizbeth rolled her eyes. "That's the problem, I can't resist her!"

Winry linked her arms with her nineteen-year-old daughter and smiled. "Like father, like daughter," she said.

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Lizbeth tucked her coat closer to her as she walked to her morning class. The cold, bitter wind was hitting her full on the face and she desperately tried to hold on to the posters that she had in her hand. Her mother and she had worked hard on them and now Lizbeth had to look for a good place to put them up. Somebody tapped her in the back.

"Hey, Roseworth," Nicholas, a classmate, greeted her. Lizbeth scoffed and continued walking. Nicholas loved to annoy the normally nice Lizbeth to the point of turning her into a fire-breathing dragon. He teased her all the time and everywhere – at class, at lunch, on parties and gatherings, everywhere!

"I've been good, thanks for asking," Nicholas said sarcastically.

Lizbeth stopped and faced him. "Do you need anything, Nicholas?" she asked on an exasperated tone. Nicholas smiled. Dimples appeared on his handsome, tanned face. That made Lizbeth hate him even more.

"Now that I'm with you, I don't need anything," he said.

Lizbeth ignored him and walked toward the bulletin board that was on the side of the main building. Nicholas observed silently as the obstinate Lizbeth Roseworth put up some sort of flyer on the bulletin board. He scanned it quickly and voiced his questions.

"You're looking for a nanny?" Lizbeth, hands resting on her hips as she admired her handiwork, nodded.

"You could have told me before. I know a very good nanny."

Lizbeth looked sideways at Nicholas. "You do?" she asked suspiciously. Nicholas nodded.

"Well, of course. She's one of my ex-girlfriends," he explained, "very good kisser, by the way, and she goes to school here."  
Lizbeth hit Nicholas in the arm.

"What did you do that for?" Nicholas whined, rubbing his arm. Lizbeth shifted her feet.

"I don't care what she can do with her mouth, but whether she is a responsible, smart, and trustworthy person."

Nicholas pouted. "Yeah, she's way responsible," he said, flipping his bangs away from his eyes, "that's part of the reason why I left her."

Lizbeth rolled her eyes. "You're such a playboy," she said.

He laughed. "And you like that, don't you, Miss Roseworth?" Lizbeth flicked his forehead and then linked her arm to his.

"Just give me her number, Nicholas," she told him, smiling.


End file.
